Holiday season begins

Published: Saturday, November 23, 2013 at 02:56 PM.

There are two special days on the calendar in the coming week — Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

The first is a day of thanks for all the bounty with which we have been blessed, and the second is the day for spending that bounty in record amounts at the beginning of the Christmas season.

Many memories are associated with both days, of course. Thanksgiving is a day for family gatherings, and sometimes it is the only day of the year on which some families can be together. And there are those who make Black Friday a day to get family and friends together for a day of shopping and fun among all the crowds.

But there is something else about this coming week that many may not be thinking of right now — the traffic. This is perhaps the week of heaviest travel across the entire nation, and highways will be packed — especially on Wednesday and on Sunday. If you don’t have to travel on those two days, then stay home.

One of my most vivid memories of Thanksgiving deals not with the more traditional memories of the day, but with the Thanksgiving traffic.

It was in the early 1980s, and after having done the traditional things for the holiday — the family gathering, the dinner and all — we had come to Sunday and were looking to Monday morning and the return to a normal work week.

At that time our niece, Melinda, was a student at Elon College. Her parents were living in Poquoson, Va., as her dad was stationed with the Air Force at Langley Air Force Base there. Melinda had gone there to be with her parents for the holiday, and one of her friends from school had gone with her.

There are two special days on the calendar in the coming week — Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

The first is a day of thanks for all the bounty with which we have been blessed, and the second is the day for spending that bounty in record amounts at the beginning of the Christmas season.

Many memories are associated with both days, of course. Thanksgiving is a day for family gatherings, and sometimes it is the only day of the year on which some families can be together. And there are those who make Black Friday a day to get family and friends together for a day of shopping and fun among all the crowds.

But there is something else about this coming week that many may not be thinking of right now — the traffic. This is perhaps the week of heaviest travel across the entire nation, and highways will be packed — especially on Wednesday and on Sunday. If you don’t have to travel on those two days, then stay home.

One of my most vivid memories of Thanksgiving deals not with the more traditional memories of the day, but with the Thanksgiving traffic.

It was in the early 1980s, and after having done the traditional things for the holiday — the family gathering, the dinner and all — we had come to Sunday and were looking to Monday morning and the return to a normal work week.

At that time our niece, Melinda, was a student at Elon College. Her parents were living in Poquoson, Va., as her dad was stationed with the Air Force at Langley Air Force Base there. Melinda had gone there to be with her parents for the holiday, and one of her friends from school had gone with her.

The two girls began their trip back to Elon on Sunday afternoon, a trip that might take four and a half hours normally. But this was not a normal travel day. Not by any means.

Melinda’s friend was driving, and as they crossed into North Carolina, her car experienced problems, and finally they had to stop north of Henderson.

At that point, they were closer to Burlington than to Poquoson, and they needed to get back for Monday classes, so they made the call to Burlington.

“Uncle Don …”

It was Melinda. She explained the problem, told me where they were and asked if I could come get them.

So Billie Faye and I hopped in the car and headed north on Interstate 85. The traffic was horrendous. Bumper to bumper in both directions. And just to add to the fun, rain was falling at a steady clip.

It took us 30 minutes to go from the Huffman Mill entry to the Highway 54 crossing at Graham. There had been several accidents in that area, and it was but a sign of things to come. Ever so slowly we made our way along I-85. There were more accidents, more rain and more vehicles to deal with.

We wondered how the girls were doing. This was before everyone in the world had a cellphone, and we had no contact with them. We could not tell them about the delays. We just hoped they would be OK. Two young girls stranded on a highway is not the best of situations.

But we moved on and hoped for the best.

Finally, more than three hours after we left home, we passed Henderson and began looking for the exit where they were supposed to be stranded.

We saw a Highway Patrol car there and pulled in behind it.

A highway patrolman had seen their plight, had stopped and had taken control of the situation. He stopped behind them, heard their problem, and dealt with it in a most unusual fashion. He made arrangements to have the car towed to a service station nearby, and he could have left the girls at the station to wait. But there was no way to notify us of their location.

So he put them in his car and stayed there on the side of the highway until we arrived. And that was a long wait.

We made it back home safely, and all ended well.

But there two things from that situation that I will never forget — the kindness and thoughtfulness of that highway patrolman, and the unbelievable traffic that the Thanksgiving holiday generates.

Don Bolden is editor emeritus of the Times-News. His column appears every Sunday. He can be contacted at DBolden202@aol.com.